The Young Turks - Flirting With Danger

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Israeli bulldozers flatten mile after mile in the West Bank. Nancy Pelosi's husband sold $500K in Visa stock before the DOJ's antitrust suit. Michael Eric Dyson cries ""cancel culture"" on The View after Nancy Mace exposes his flirty texts. Mega-landlord Invitation Homes agrees to pay $48 million as part of settlement with FTC. " HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. They don't know what it's like to be me. I'm so upset. Oh my God. Begha! Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. Be watching.

It's the Young Turks. Big news day over here at the Young Turks. I'm your host, Anna Casparian, and I'm looking forward to sharing those news stories with you. In just a few minutes, we're going to jump right into what's currently transpiring in the West Bank. Later in the first hour, we'll also talk a little bit about how the DOJ is pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against Visa. But one of the most interesting elements of that story is Nancy Pelosi's husband's behavior in the stock market right before this DOJ investigation and lawsuit was, was made public, so really looking forward to sharing that story with you all. Michael Eric Dyson and his TIF with Congresswoman Nancy Mace continues.

He made an appearance on The View today, and my take will probably surprise you all on this matter. Is mispronouncing Kamala Harris's name considered racist? Well, we're going to answer that question a little later. In the second hour, John Idera will be joining me to talk about a whole host of other stories, including a Senate hearing involving the makers of Ozempic, why are they price gouging Americans these senators want to know? Could it be that these senators are allowing them to? We're going to get to that in the second hour, so don't miss it. For now, though, I wanted to focus a little bit on some foreign policy and the death and destruction

that the United States government is currently aiding and abetting in the West Bank. Israeli forces are obliterating parts of the West Bank, like Janine, while also escalating war in Lebanon and reigning terror on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. And as the world watches in horror, the United States continues to provide the bulk of the arms the IDF is using to carry out their lengthy list of war crimes. Now the New York Times highlighted Israel's destruction of Tulk Arm and Janine, both in the West Bank, in a piece titled, Israeli bulldozers flatten mile after mile in the West Bank.

The details are brutal, and so are the videos included in the P. So why don't we jump right into it? As the Times reports, the Israeli military launched an extensive and deadly raid in the West Bank in the early morning hours of August 28th, when residents of Tolkarm and Janine awoke to Israeli bulldozers tearing their roads apart. Water mains and sewage pipes, were destroyed as a result. Now, the head of general relations for Tolkarm, Muhammad Matar, says that more than 90% of water and sewage lines have been destroyed in the town.

Janine also suffered a pretty big blow with 70% of their roads being damaged in recent rates, 70%. Sewage and water lines were also cut, leaving about 80% of Janine without running water. official said, including the main hospital. You know what they say about water? Super terroristic, a big threat to the Israelis. The IDF alleges that these are just counterterrorism operations aimed at rooting out Hamas, you know, Hamas hiding in the water pipes.

The military said it had found stockpiles of weapons in its recent operations in the northern West Bank, killed 23 militants, and arrested 45. one Israeli soldier was killed in Janine, it said. I don't believe any of that, especially considering the fact that the IDF identifies any young male who's Palestinian to be a Hamas militant. And so nice that the New York Times just regurgitated what the IDF told them, but I'm personally skeptical. Now, Kamal Abu al-Rub, who is the governor of Janine, told reporters that the Israelis are just

raising critical infrastructure and also gratuitously bulldozing things like soccer fields, pharmacies, and schools. Even the Times argues that visual evidence supports accounts from residents about the damage from Israel's latest raids. Videos filmed in Tulgarm and Janine show bulldozers destroying infrastructure and businesses and soldiers impeding local emergency responders from getting to the hospital. Now, rights groups that have been tracking Israeli airstrikes in the area say that the IDF has been intensifying its bombings. The director of the human rights group Al-Hawks says, these actions violate international

law, as if international law matters at all when the IDF is the one carrying out the war crimes. They are imposing conditions materially and psychologically that make people feel Gaza is coming to you. There is a feeling among Palestinians across the West Bank that what is coming is very bad, that it will be a plan to kill and expel us. Now that might sound overblown to some, but honestly, that is not an unwarranted fear. Israel has essentially made Gaza uninhabitable by destroying every hospital and most residential buildings. And it seems the same thing is beginning to happen in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory that has been terrorized by Israeli settlers for decades with impunity. According to the UN office for the coordination

of humanitarian affairs and the rights group Alhawk, after October 7th, air strikes by drones, fighter jets, and helicopters increased rapidly, killing 41 Palestinians in August alone, more than at any point in close to two decades. Rami Kamal's business has been damaged in 10 separate Israeli raids since October 7th. And it costs him around $20,000 in repairs each time it happens. I think he correctly points out that these raids aren't really about finding terrorists. They didn't find terrorists the first time, the second time, the third time, fourth time. I mean, they raided his business 10 times, didn't find any terrorists, but they keep doing it.

Maybe it's about hurting the daily lives of Palestinians. He says, quote, it felt like we were targeted. That was very clear. There was an intentional effort to destroy businesses. They think they're teaching people a lesson. The army's message is no one is getting out of this without being punished. Collective punishment also considered a violation of international law. Not again, not that it really matters when Israel's carrying out the crimes here.

Now, he's on to something because the IDF has bombed and destroyed so many buildings in several districts that they are now considered disaster zones that threaten the stability of the broader neighborhood. And much like in Gaza, the IDF is hellbent on obstructing access to hospitals and life-saving health care in the West Bank. First, their raids kill or severely injure civilians. Then the IDF blocks injured, then the IDF blocks injured Palestinians who are being rushed to the hospital, that is if they can, you know, find a way around the destroyed roads. Medics and municipal officials say that IDF soldiers have even surrounded hospitals and

deny entry to civilian vehicles, forcing emergency vehicles and ambulances to take them to the hospitals. Now, Muhammad al-Sadi, who is the head of the Red Crescent branch in Janine, said that calls for help increase significantly during the recent raids. But his teams, he said, failed to respond to 500 to 600 calls per day because they simply could not reach them. Now, as a result of ambulances and medics being forced to escort patients who need regular treatments like dialysis or radiation, it's causing a lot of problems. And, And the IDF is also, you know, stopping and searching those ambulances. Al-Sadi said some of his teams were forced to wait for long periods of time, which, you know,

obviously risks the lives of those who are rushing to the hospital. I think that's probably the point. Medics and workers repairing damaged roads also say that IDF sometimes fires on them as well. Sari Bashi, a program director for Human Rights Watch, believes Israel's airstrikes in the West Bank violate international laws. One of our concerns is that lethal force is actually a first resort, that the Israeli military is trying to kill people as opposed to arrest them under circumstances where it's possible to arrest them.

The UN office and Al Haq have both documented more than 150 Palestinians killed by airstrikes in the West Bank since October 7th, that's just by airstrikes. There are other Palestinians who have been killed by other means. Now finally, the dehumanization and disregard for human lives has been demonstrated by the IDF time and time again, the most moral army, of course. One of the more horrific stories to break out of the West Bank involved Israeli soldiers tossing bodies from rooftops. An Associated Press journalist in the town of Kwabatya witnessed three members of the IDF carry out the act. Take a look. Israeli soldiers were filmed apparently pushing three bodies from roofs in the occupied West Bank.

The footage was obtained by the Associated Press News Agency. It appears to show the soldiers push the bodies off adjacent multi-story buildings. The incident took place after a raid in the northern part of the Palestinian Territory. This particular incident, it was filmed from different angles. There are different videos was witnessed by a local journalist there. the AP, so that shows apparently three apparently lifeless bodies. We don't know the condition of these people being dragged by Israeli soldiers towards the edge of multi-story buildings and then pushed to the ground.

Now, this happened in a city just south of Janine in the northern West Bank, where the Israeli military had carried out a raid. And the military said this is an incident that is under review now. CBS News reports that on an adjacent rooftop, the soldiers hold another apparently lifeless body by its limbs and swing it over the edge. In a third instance, a soldier kicks a body toward the edge before it falls from view. Photos captured by the Associated Press show an Israeli Army bulldozer moving near the buildings where the bodies were dropped. I mean, look, honestly, is anyone really surprised?

I know that we all have super short attention spans, and I don't blame you for that. It's just the digital age, it's the way things work. But not too long ago, we were reporting on Israeli soldiers literally digging up the graves of Palestinians in Gaza and then tossing them into a mass grave, desecrating the bodies of Palestinians that had already been victimized by this very moral army. So would anyone be surprised? that they would literally toss bodies from rooftops in the West Bank? And by the way, they're able to behave and act with impunity, no consequences. The government of Israel keeps getting rewarded by American weapons, sent by the American government.

Why would they change their behavior? Look, I don't know if Joe Biden is even cognizant of the fact that this is his legacy now. He not only greenlights the horrific death and destruction of Palestinians, he financially and militarily supports it. The man who campaigned on being the kind and decent alternative to Donald Trump has overseen the slaughter of tens of thousands of children who are trapped in a small strip of land that's being bombed to smithereens. Obviously, that's Gaza.

Our esteemed president took tens of billions of our dollars and funneled it to a government that systematically commits unspeakable atrocities. Israel has made an embarrassment out of Biden. But as he aids and abets the slaughter of children, we're supposed to thank him for stepping aside so a more competitive candidate, Kamala Harris, can run in the presidential race. Nah, I think Biden for nothing. The only thing that gives me a tiny bit of solace is knowing that his decades-long political career is ending in humiliation. Humiliated by his own debate performance.

Humiliated domestically by his inability to fight for his own policies. Humiliated on the world's stage by a literal war criminal like Benjamin Netanyahu who never misses an opportunity to debase Biden. Kamala Harris should see this as a teachable moment. Should she get elected, chances are, she will feel tempted to follow in Biden's footsteps. But she should ask herself what she wants her legacy to be. Because it'd be a real shame if the first female president ended up being a global embarrassment like Biden is. Let's move on to some other news. Obviously, I get worked up with that story because we're the ones supporting it.

We're the ones funding it. I mean, it is unbelievable that on one hand, you can have, you know, Biden claim that we must hold Russia accountable for the war crimes. Russia's committing while aiding and abetting the war crimes being committed by Israel. Anyway. Long-bendy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going. Keep the fun going. Twizzlers, keep the fun going. Lots going on in the fun going.

Lots going on in the world of, well, insider trading. So I wanted to talk about that a little bit. Turns out Nancy Pelosi's husband dumped a whopping $500,000 in visa stock right before the Department of Justice filed suit against the company. Now, this is an ongoing saga with the Pelosi's, right? Allegations of insider trading, allegations that Nancy Pelosi will have some briefings, She'll have information that the rest of the public is not privy to, and wow, wouldn't you know it? Suddenly that information is being used to, you know, make decisions about stock trades, allegedly. Now, I say allegedly because no one's really cared enough to actually fully investigate this.

But it is interesting how time and time again, the Pelosi seemed to engage in, you know, stock trading that is beneficial to them based on policies or lawsuits that are being implemented by the government. So let's get into the details. But before we get into the details about what the Pelosi's are up to, I think it's important to understand this DOJ lawsuit. So basically, the Justice Department is currently alleging that Visa has violated antitrust laws by imposing exclusionary agreements that penalize merchants who wish to use alternative payment processors. And that creates a monotonous. At least that's what Merrick Garland, the Attorney General, is alleging here as part of this lawsuit. Now, he also argues that this ends up harming consumers because the merchant fees are then

passed on to the consumers. So visa requires volume commitments from merchants and their financial institutions that force them to use visa for most of their card transactions or face deeper fees. These agreements are priced so that unless all or nearly, all debit volume runs over Visa's payment rails, large disloyalty penalties can be imposed on all visa transactions, according to the Justice Department. So currently, the investigators are looking into Visa's relationship with companies such as Square, Stripe, and also PayPal. And according to the Wall Street Journal, Visa is alleged to have offered those specific companies financial incentives to prevent the firms from

using other competitive payment processors. So that's the allegation here. So for example, Visa allegedly, according to the Justice Department, coerced PayPal to encourage its customers to make payments using Visa branded cards. Now here is Attorney General Merrick Garland elaborating more on what the allegations are. Visa knows it is a, quote, must carry network for banks and merchants alike. That means all merchants and banks must contract with Visa because certain purchases using a Visa debit card can only be completed through its network. Visa uses that leverage to get banks and merchants to agree to what are known as, quote, volume requirements.

These provisions require banks and merchants to direct a large amount of their transactions to visa or else face higher fees. As a result, when merchants weigh the decision of which electronic payment network to use for a given transaction, they cannot choose the authorized network with the lowest price or the best offering for that transaction. Instead, they operate under the threat that if they do not process enough of their payments through visa, they will face exorbitant fees on all visa debt transactions. Now, this is probably why Visa's payment systems account for more than 60% of debit transactions in the United States. So they have really found a way to, if these allegations are proven to be true, scheme their way to the top and essentially create a monopoly in this business.

Now, the Justice Department argues that Visa effectively paid off potential competitors before they could even develop the scale to compete in earnest. We see this happen in other sectors of the economy as well. Merrick Garland cited a series of agreements with payments company Square, citing an executive saying Visa has the smaller firm, quote, on a short leash. I'm sure they do. Now, Visa collects $7 billion in fees from merchants annually. And they also reported an $8.9 billion in revenue in their most recent quarter. Now, that's insane and it also represents a 10% increase year over year.

So I'm very curious to see how this DOJ antitrust suit plays out. This isn't the first time Visa has been accused of breaking or violating antitrust laws. They've paid some settlements in the past. The outcome of this suit could be different, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We'll just wait and see what happens. Now, with all of that in mind, let's get to Paul Pelosi and the stock trading that happened a few months prior to this suit becoming public knowledge. So less than three months prior to the DOJ announcing this lawsuit, Nancy Pelosi's husband

sold a lot of visa stock. So Christopher Josephs, who's a tech entrepreneur who runs the Nancy Pelosi stock tracker on X, we've talked about this account before. It's amazing. Well, he posted a screenshot of a congressional filing on July 3rd, which showed that the former House Speaker's husband, Paul Pelosi, had sold 2,000 shares of Visa worth between half a million and a million dollars. So at the time that he made this transaction, there was no public knowledge that the DOJ was going to pursue a lawsuit against Visa. So, like, how could Paul Pelosi know? I mean, maybe it was just a lucky co-eastern.

coincidence. Except that's not really the case. There were already whispers, already rumors that the DOJ was going to pursue this suit. So let's go to the Financial Times, which reports that Visa in 2021 disclosed in a regulatory filing that the DOJ's antitrust unit had requested information on potential violations of antitrust law provisions that outlaw anti-competitive agreements and monopolistic conduct. The civil probe focused on Visa's debit card businesses in the United States, as well as competition and other networks and payment methods. So dating all the way back to 2021, you have the DOJ ask for certain information from Visa, basically tipping them off that there is an impending lawsuit. All right, I think we got caught.

And are we going to really insult ourselves into thinking that there was, there was, there was no conversation happening in Congress about pursuing a suit against visa, that Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi knew nothing about this. Like, this isn't the first time this has happened. This keeps happening. The Pelosi's keep engaging in like stock trading. They keep dumping stocks or buying stocks right before a major news story breaks about a policy being implemented or a lawsuit being pursued.

If you look at the performance of their stock portfolio, it outperforms the S&P 500 again and again and again. And I just refuse to believe that the Pelosi's are somehow geniuses. I mean, the most successful in predicting how the markets are going to react. And look, even if there's no wrongdoing here, and I don't buy that for a second, it gives the impression that there is bad behavior taking place, that there is corruption taking place. And to be sure, when you have members of Congress or their immediate family members benefiting from insider information or benefiting in the stock market based on the policies that are being implemented by our members of Congress, we've got an issue.

There's a huge conflict of interest there. Because think about it, guys. If you are invested in, let's say, Disney, you invested in some Disney stock, but there's a bill on your desk about potentially reining in some of Disney's behavior, which could cut into their profits, you're going to vote in favor of that legislation? If your House leadership, are you going to even bring that bill up for a vote? It's a huge issue. It's a huge conflict of interest.

Politicians on both sides of the political aisle engage in this. Nancy Pelosi gets a lot of attention because she seems to engage in it more than other politicians in Congress. But this is wrong. And the ridiculous bad faith efforts to rein this in, just not enough, obviously. We need to do something to ensure that our member. of Congress are working on behalf of the people, not on behalf of themselves, not on behalf of their stock portfolio. And we just can't ensure that if they're able to trade individual stocks.

Nancy Pelosi says that members of Congress should be able to participate in the free market. I disagree with that. I think if you're a member of Congress, you have made a decision to be a public servant. That means making sacrifices, something that our members of Congress forgot they were supposed to do in order to serve the people. All they think they're supposed to do is serve themselves. And if you look at how much wealth these members of Congress have accumulated while serving as United States Congress people, it's very obvious they're serving themselves.

I mean, it's incredible how rich Nancy Pelosi has gotten while being in politics all her life. Her salary ain't that big. people don't become, you know, I mean, she's worth nine figures at this point. If you are simply a United States congresswoman and that's where you're making the most of your income, you're not going to be worth that much. So I think it's about time, the American people, regardless of what your political affiliation is, like get together and demand more from our system of government. Trading individual stocks is another form of corruption, and it's become so normalized that some people don't even question it.

It's time to question it. It's time for them to actually behave as public servants, as opposed to greedy pigs who trade on insider information. We got to take a break. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. Just want to read a comment about our last segment from Fear Night Crusader 35, who says, as always Anna, thank you, we have already come to the point where it is crystal clear,

safe to say we are witnessing Palestine Holocaust from 2023 to present. Time for ICJ and ICC to expedite the arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF. You know, the thing that's so frustrating is how much power the United States has in world affairs, and it's because we are a military superpower. And since we back Israel, they are able to act with impunity. I don't know if, you know, the international courts are going to be able to hold Israel accountable. What I do know is if you look at the UN Security Council, all it takes is one country like the United States to veto anything that they voted on to essentially make what they voted on go away.

And they have done that time and time again when it comes to the issue of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians. So, but anyway, thank you for writing in. I appreciate it. Let's get to our next story, which isn't about international relations. It's kind of about race relations here in the United States. And this story frustrated me when it first came out. It continues to frustrate me.

At least I get a chance to talk about it because there are updates. We're living in a toxic culture where there's a cancel culture, gotcha. We're not trying to elevate. We're trying to eviscerate. This woman has now depended upon, like her inspiration, Donald Trump, a racist trope. The black brute seeks the innocent white woman. And now I'm seeking lasciviously to approach her. I mean, but did you try to hit on the white woman?

Now, that was Michael Eric Dyson, who's reeling over Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, calling him out for sending her creepy texts immediately after he implied that she's racist on live national television. And he did imply that. Don't insult our intelligence. Now, it's incredible how he can decry cancel culture on one hand and then try to get her can. for allegedly using racist tropes on another. So let's break this down, because in case you missed the story, it all started when Dyson and Congresswoman Mace appeared on the same CNN panel to discuss the presidential race.

Mace, like many Americans, struggled a bit with Kamala Harris's name. Talk about rerun Kamala's, Kamala's... You almost got it. I will say Kamala's name anyway that I want to. No, but you mispronouncing her, you also misjudged. I'm purposely mispronouncing her name. That's what you're going to acknowledge every man. If I purposely mispronounce your name, that would not be appropriate.

Okay, so she probably shouldn't have said I will say her name how I want. But like clearly she wasn't intentionally trying to mispronounce her name. She started with Kamala and then she's like, wait, Kamala. She's probably confused because guess what? We have heard both pronunciations for many years now. And it's kind of frustrating when you're trying to make a point, a substantive point, right? I'm sure I probably disagree with whatever Mace was supposed to say or was trying to say. But it doesn't matter, she's trying to get her point out.

And she gets interrupted immediately over a small error. Now, that is when Dyson stepped in to make the obligatory point that, you know, we've heard it before. White woman bad, very naughty. Let's watch. This Congresswoman is a wonderful human being, but when you disrespect Kamala Harris by saying you will call her whatever you want, I know you don't intend it to be that way. That's the history and legacy of white disregard for the humanity of black people. So now you're calling me racist. I didn't say, I just said you weren't a racist. That is complete yes. You don't have to intend racism to accomplish it. No, no, no, you are intending that I'm racist. And that is part and vice. You're not racist. You just did a racist thing. Come on. Now, Kamala Harris has a relatively unique name. We all know this. And people are going to accidentally

mispronounce it. It's called life. And these little squabbles over this issue are insane. Especially when commentators like Dyson blow it out of proportion to make it seem like it's the perpetuation of white supremacy in America. Give me a break. In fact, maybe give all the Kamala Harris supporters you're about to hear from a break as well. pain against Kamala Harris has begun. You'll notice they purposefully pronounce her name wrong. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was a very good prosecutor. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was first Biden and Kamala. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. And to the cat is Kamala point, they purposefully pronounce her name wrong. They say Kamala. They do it all the time. It is on purpose. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was talking about this. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. Wow, a lot of people perpetuating white supremacy in America, including black people.

Now getting back to Dyson's Tiff with Mace, after he implied that she's mispronouncing Kamala's name because she's racist, Mace did this on the house floor. I would like to also enter into the record, a screenshot of a text message I received from the esteemed professor from Vanderbilt, Michael Eric Dyson, after my CNN interview begged me for photos in this text he says after calling me a racist on CNN don't tell anybody we look good together and sent me a kissy emoji without objection the guy says I'm gorgeous and all these photos I don't think he's that been out of shape on how anyone pronounces Kamala and if we're going to have that standard you got to hold it to both side's not just one or the one or the other. Damn. Now, as you can imagine, Dyson didn't like that.

of this. Look, Nancy Mays, to be fair, is not innocent in all of this, okay? And honestly, in this saga, her biggest crime, those massive, tacky earrings. Like, girl, what are you doing? What are you doing, girl? Like, I respect your religion, okay? But like, maybe smaller cross earrings. Why do they have to be so big? Okay, anyway, let's get back to Dyson. He didn't like it. So he wrote on X, quote, her white women's tears and mendacity are all in the service of lies in distortions, I was wrong about one thing. She is a bigot and racist. No, you thought that to begin with. Let's keep it real. Now, in an effort to defend himself, he also took to social media to say that he's not doing anything weird. I mean, he writes

creepy messages to lots of women. Watch. These are other people that I interacted with recently, my friends, some of them. My friend Allison, I said, nice, you look gorgeous. Look out, Texas. Here she comes talking about that. Nell Painter, a world-renowned historian. On her Instagram, I posted after she posted about, she's a Mary Allen von der Hayden Fellow in letters of the American Academy in Berlin. On in public, I said gorgeous and brilliant all at wants, a heart with a face that's smiling with hearts and a kissy face, right? I said, keep up the great work. Then there is my friend Terry, who I was giving tickets to for the Democratic National Convention. I said, you know I can if I will. Everybody and

they mama want these tickets for today. You look gorgeous as always. Then my colleague Lisa at Vanderbilt. When we took pictures, I sent them to her, and I said, me and Miss Gorgeous. And then, count's a woman Mary Sheffield, who is a councilwoman in Detroit, and I said, gorgeous and brilliant leader, bless you and thank God for your courage, strength, and leadership. And then my dear friend Susan Taylor, a renowned editor, Queen, that's what I call her. So good to see you today. You look gorgeous as always. And your soul-inspiring conversation was uplifting, as always, feel better, love y'all.

And then finally, to Dana Bash. I congratulated her on the interview she did with Kamala Harris. And then on another interview, saving people of color, saying people of color are eating cats, that's racism. I was quoting her. I said, thank you, Dana Bash. Besides being brilliant and courageous, you also look gorgeous. Wait, no kissy emoji for Dana Bash? What's going on here?

Look, obviously that's not the defense he thinks it is. Maybe don't send unsolicited evaluations of women's appearance in a professional setting. Especially as a married man, I would not be happy with my husband if he's sending kissy emojis to other women, especially at work, and have a little grace for people instead of immediately assuming they're driven by hatred and racism. But no, he just can't get himself to do that. So he doubled down on the view. We're living in a toxic culture where there's a cancel culture, gotcha. We're not trying to elevate, we're trying to eviscerate. So when it comes to Nancy Mace, you see I tried to be nice to the woman. I said, you're a wonderful woman. I lied.

I then said, but I tried to be nice to her. And then even when I pointed out to her what the repetition of the misnaming of Kamala Harris would do, she got defensive. Oh, you're calling me a racist? No, to all of these white Christians, and she's one of them. The Bible says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn their face to God and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. and then I will forgive their sins and I will heal the land.

They have not forgiven themselves. White Christians hate themselves for the past wrongs that have been done. And I'm here as a loving Christian to say, let's grapple with that past, acknowledge the historic legacy of supremacy. Don't deny it. Don't erase it. Don't eviscerate it. Don't remove it from the history books.

Confront it. And then when you forgive yourselves, we can go forward. white Christians of today are not responsible for the atrocities that were committed by the United States centuries ago or decades ago unless they were involved in perpetuating the unequal treatment of black people or in favor of maintaining slavery there's no reason for them to apologize for the crimes committed in the past and I am curious, has Dyson forgiven himself for sending unwanted messages to women in professional settings? You know, the Bible says, if Dyson is worried about the toxicity of cancel

culture, as he alleged on the view, he should stop weaponizing race for cheap political points. And I totally agree with one of our viewers, Rio Hand, who makes a great point about Kamala Harris herself, because she has not made an issue of her name being mispronounced. I have never heard her complain about it once. Maybe we should follow her lead and stop turning a small issue into some sort of statement about white supremacy in America. It cheapens real instances of racism and it leads to a boy who cried wolf scenario when real racism happens and people are less likely to take it seriously because everything is considered racist, including an honest mistake, like mispronouncing a unique name.

All right, we got to take a break when we come back. One more story for you before we get to John. I want to talk a little bit about how finally one of those private equity firms that bought up homes and then became a slum lord, they were held accountable, kind of, a little bit. But still, it's something. I'll give you the story and more when we come back. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. Just want to read a comment from Amatoya 1 in our member section who says that Nancy

Mace was trying to mispronounce it. Well, I mean, if you listen to it carefully, she says Kamala and then she thinks she's correcting herself by saying Kamala because she clearly doesn't know which one is the right one. Because we've heard it pronounce both ways for many, many years leading up to this election. And so I don't think she was intentionally trying to mispronounce it. And I think she got irritated when everyone jumped on her as she was trying to make a point to correct the way that she pronounced the name. I just, okay, look, I hate when people call me Anna. I can't stand it. Anna is like, it's like nails on a chalkboard for me.

And what I'll usually do is I'll correct the person who calls me Anna once. And if they forget, I just let it go. I don't go on a national tour to accuse them of misogyny or of disrespect. It is what it is, guys. It's not that big of a deal. We have way bigger fish to fry. And Kamala Harris isn't some like oppressed woman who's like suffering from extreme discrimination. She's a powerful woman who's running for president and has a really.

good shot of winning. Let's all calm down and focus on the issues that are actually victimizing people in this country and across the globe. All right, with that said, let's move on to a positive story, because it turns out that for once, there's some consequence to what a private equity firm, known as Blackstone, has been up to. They're the ones behind something known as invitation homes. They've been buying up residential real estate and then basically renting those properties out, acting as slum lords. And now there have been some consequences for some of the behavior they've engaged in. By 2022, large investors were buying more than one in every four single family homes sold in the U.S. The absolute largest companies

really is third two. The first is invitation homes, which is a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Their business model is built on exploitation and on having a very uneven playing field tilted in their favor. Finally, one corporate landlord that has helped kill America's dreams of owning a home, and they also screwed over renters, is facing the music, thanks to Lena Khan and the Federal Trade Commission. Now, this is an important story, because this is what we should have the Federal Trade Commission focusing its energy on, especially since we're still dealing and grappling with

a housing crisis. And the people who have taken full advantage of that and partially contributed to that crisis are these private equity firms who buy up residential real estate and then rent that real estate out, thus limiting the inventory of homes for Americans to buy and cornering the market as the largest corporate slumlords. Now, the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced a $48 million settlement with invitation homes, the largest landlord, of single family homes in the United States for an array of unlawful actions against consumers. Now, the company owns some 85,000 houses nationwide and manages thousands more. And according to the FTC, invitation homes engaged in deceptive business practices.

Those actions include deceiving renters about lease costs, charging undisclosed junk fees, failing to inspect homes before residents moved in and unfairly withholding tenants security deposits when they moved out. The company advertised rentals at prices that did not include those extra fees, including fees for mandatory smart home features and air filters, and added up to, that added up to an extra $1,700 a year or more for some tenants, the FTC said. So we shouldn't be surprised that this has been going on, right? They are looking at this whole model, this private equity firm, Blackstone, which is behind invitation homes. The whole point of this is to corner the rental market and to make profit for what, for the clients in this private equity firm, right?

They are investing their money and expecting a return. you're not going to make giant profits by being the kind of landlord who's really looking out for the best interests of your tenants. But let me continue. So as I mentioned, those fees that they were charging the tenants added up to a lot of money. And so an invitation homes employee explained that this is how we get upset residents, but also make the numbers, the chief financial officer communicated investors need to see. So it's part of their profit model. They made deceptive claims about the condition of the

properties that it listed for rent. And they also failed to respond to maintenance request, something that we've covered on this show. We've done stories where we've shown videos of tenants dealing with black mold. You can see the black mold on the ceilings. They provided evidence, documentation, that they reached out to their landlord over and over again and did not get a response. No one showed up to do something about the black mold, which is going to cause all sorts of health issues. Marketing a worry-free leasing lifestyle and promising pre-inspected homes before move-in and 24-7 maintenance, new residents instead faced issues like sewage backup, broken appliances, and visible rodent feces.

Larissa Bungo, a senior attorney at the FTC, wrote. Additionally, invitation homes got involved in all sorts of other bad behavior. They punished renters for normal wear and tear or damages that had existed even before the tenants had moved in. Amazing. They also tried to prevent its tenants from filing declarations of hardship to protect themselves from eviction, you know, during the pandemic when we were supposed to have moratorium on evictions. In fact, I remember covering the story about how, you know,

small landlords had to follow suit with the moratoriums, right? They don't have the kind of resources these private equity firms have to defend themselves. But the private equity firms were evicting people left and right during the pandemic while the moratorium was in place. How is that fair? So on they, okay, so on top of the $48 million settlement that they're agreeing to pay. The settlement also requires invitation homes to clearly disclose its leasing prices, establish policies and procedures to handle security deposit refunds fairly, and stop other unlawful behavior. Now, what is the other unlawful behavior? You know, things like refusing to refund the tenant, their security deposit when they move out, stuff like

that. The agreement still has to be approved, by the way, by a federal judge before it can go into effect. Invitation Homes also said in a statement that its agreement with the federal trade commission doesn't mean that they're admitting to any wrongdoing. No, not at all. They're not, you know, I too like to pay a 40, what was it, 48 million dollar settlement when I'm accused of doing wrongdoing just to show that I did not engage in the wrongdoing. That's, that's usually what people do. Now, invitation homes, again, says that they didn't do anything wrong. And while it's good that they're actually facing some punishment for once, well, is it really going to hurt them? Because $48 million is a lot of money to us. But is it

enough money to stop invitation homes from engaging in the practices that they were caught engaging in? Is it going to stop them from abusing their tenants? Is it going to cause them to actually respond to their tenants when they're complaining about things like sewage backup or you know black mold in their unit or in their home. It depends. It depends what kind of profits are being made by treating tenants this way. And if you do a cost benefit analysis, maybe that $48 million settlement is way lower than the amount of profits invitation homes can make by being negligent in the way that they treat their tenants or by pocketing the money that tenants have paid in their security deposits, which is supposed to be refunded when

they move out. So we'll see how it plays out, but this does feel a lot like what we've seen in the past with other corporations that were made to pay settlements after they were caught abusing clients or customers or tenants. Usually they'll go right back to doing what they were doing previously. Because unless you're throwing people in jail, a fine or a fee or a 48 million dollar settlement is not going to be enough to persuade them to maybe stop doing what they've been doing. You have to actually attack the ability for them to make the kinds of profits they're making through the bad behavior, paying a quick, it's like a parking ticket.

Like, you're going to probably park illegally again in the future, because a parking ticket's not going to end your life. It's not going to crush you. $48 million settlement for invitation home. probably not going to crush them. But I do commend the FTC for actually looking out for the American people. It's been a while since that's happened and it's good to see it. Obviously, it's all being done under the leadership of Lena Khan,

who's got a target on her back with all of these billionaire donors funding Kamala Harris's campaign to ensure that she rids her administration of Lena Khan. Hopefully she doesn't do that, but we'll see how it plays out. All right, we got to take a break when we come back. John Iderola joins me for the second hour. Don't miss it.